About Penny

Penny MacLaren resides in the beautiful Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and spends much of her time in her beloved studio. She has a Bachelor of Education (Fine Arts), and in 2008 completed a Graduate Diploma of Social Sciences (Counselling). For many years, Penny was a high school art teacher, including moderating the final work for both Visual Art Studies and Art Practical for SACE (SSABSA). She was also the SACE examiner for art history for 8 years.

When creating her pieces, she draws on her love of people, animals, and the environment as inspiration for her artwork. Although she uses a range of mediums, she mainly specialises in drawing and painting, and her pastel works have been extremely popular for commissions. She now has commissioned work in private collections all over the world, including England, Japan, Italy, Norway, the Middle East, and Australia.

Competitions:

Finalist in the Portrait Award - Royal South Australian Art Society 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019

Finalist in the Solar Art prize (wildlife) 2017, 2018, 2019. In 2019 was awarded both the People’s Choice and the Hangers Prize.

Finalist in the 160 Anniversary Art show for Royal South Australian Art society 2016

Finalist in the Characters of the Fleurieu Exhibition Signal Point Gallery Goolwa 2016

Finalist in the Goolwa Art and Photography Exhibition 2016

Merit award - Salt of the Earth Exhibition- RSASA 2015

Portrait demonstration RSASA- Portrait of Chris Kourakis (Chief Justice), bought by the High Court for public display 2015

Inglis Equine International Art Competition- Finalist.

Mortimore Art Exhibition- Finalist.

Archibald Prize- Participant 2009, 2011.

Heysen Prize- Honourable mention 2002.

Blackwood Rotary Art Show- Highly commended 1987, 1988.

2014 Glenelg Art Gallery joint exhibition with Barbara Shepard - China Painter